Your Dog 202003

Karen’s long-term canine

companions, Whippets

Archie and Angel.

44 Your Dog March 2020

After losing a much-loved

canine companion, many dog

owners think ‘never again’,

but sometimes fate has other

plans, as Karen Bush reveals.

“I kept busy,

because when

I stopped I just

howled.”

HERE WE

GO AGAIN...

ABOUT KAREN

Karen Bush has been

a contributor to Your

Dog Magazine for many

years, writing features

covering all aspects

of canine training,

behaviour, health, and

general care. She has

also written a number

of books, including

‘Dog-Friendly

Gardening’ and

the best-selling ‘The

Dog Expert’.

I

’ve owned dogs for thirty odd years.

It’s always been tough when the time

has come to say the i nal farewell to each

of them, but I swear it gets harder with

each departure.

When my Whippet, Archie, collected his

wings nearly two years ago, I felt utterly

broken, but having his companion Angel,

another Whippet, helped me get through

a very dark time. When she followed him

over the Rainbow Bridge eighteen months

later, the grief and pain of separation

returned a hundredfold.

I kept busy, because when I stopped I just

howled. I packed up and donated unused

and no longer needed meds, beds, bowls,

treats, and toys to Battersea Dogs and Cats

Home. “No more dogs!” I said. “Not ever

again. Maybe a foster or two in time, but

nothing permanent.”

And then a mere fortnight later,

unexpectedly and completely unlooked

for, a tiny Whippet, rescued by Lurcher SOS,

somehow managed to creep in under my

radar. She seemed absolutely perfect, yet

astonishingly, no one seemed to want her.

I tentatively enquired about her, expecting

her to have been snapped up, but, yes, she

was still available for rehoming, and to my

amazement I suddenly found myself in

a whirlwind of preparations in readiness for

meeting her and having a home check.

But if I surprised myself with the speed

at which I of ered a home to Dulcie, the

moment I’d done so, I found myself beset by

doubts. Was I doing the right thing, taking

on another dog so soon? More, I found

myself questioning my competence as an

owner. It had been fourteen years since

Archie bounded into my life, joined soon

after by Angel; after all that time, we knew

each other very well and had developed

a cosy relationship and routine.

So while the prospect of bringing Dulcie

home was exciting, it was also a little

daunting. The huge sense of responsibility

of taking on a new dog doesn’t go away

just because you’ve had others in the past,

but if anything grows with each new arrival.

Would I be what she needed, as much as

she would be what I wanted? And there

were going to be a whole lot of things for

me to relearn; I felt like a i rst-time owner

as I fretted over everything, from what

and how much to feed her, to whether the

garden fence was secure enough, and if

I should skip putting up a Christmas tree

until I knew more about her. And there

would be training too — not just basic

obedience and toilet training, but teaching

house rules and interactions with others.

After more than a decade, it was all a bit

of a dim memory; would I remember how

to go about it all? So much had changed

in that time too. The old-style clubs

I belonged to have now vanished, replaced

by trainers of ering courses consisting of

a i xed number of lessons, although, on the

plus side, there are far more opportunities

Dulcie has started to

come out of her shell...

44-45 YD Dulcie Mar20 CS(SW)ok.indd 44 17/01/2020 13:48